Tag Archives: ultimate intervention

Continuing the list of nice projects that happened on April 9th, I should include the one from my friend Liz Kauff. She is interested in Craft and argues that most people avoid making things with hands just because they think they can’t, even without trying. So she created these “crafterventions” where she just goes to public spaces and starts teaching people how to do things like Hand Printing and Knitting.

What I like more about this project is that she’s offering her time to instruct people in something that she’s an expert at. I believe everybody has something to give or teach, so if each one of us did at least one small intervention like that, people would be more skilled and confident.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/22264893 w=610&h=343]

And if you want to learn any craft, check Liz’s website: Craftervention . She has the cutest tutorials ever! And yes, we use the same table at our interventions. It just happened to be the most convenient (read cheap) one! : )

Umut Ozover is a very unique person. He’s confident, direct, persuasive and has an incredible sense of humor. That’s why I shouldn’t be so surprised when he told me he wanted to offer free condoms as his Ultimate Intervention.

I’m not sure if this would be an intervention that I would personally make, but all I asked from people was that they came up with an idea that would add something positive to people’s routine and that everybody could profit from. And I have to say that this guy has a point:

Meanwhile… in Nantes, France, Priscila also wanted to make her contribution to a kinder world. She left a public transportation ticket at a bus stop, with the same note, but in french! How glamorous!

She also told me that when she came back, the ticket was gone, but there wasn’t any “Thank You” left, and that made her a bit sad. I totally know what she means, but I wouldn’t worry too much if I were Priscila. I recently read about a research that Alice Isen, a psychologist from Cornell University, developed. She wanted to measure how people react after being exposed to positive surprises. So she left some dimes in pay phones and after people hang up, another person would be passing by and dropped a stack of paper. Those people who found the phone with extra money were much more inclined in helping the others than those who didn’t have gained anything.

So, maybe this person didn’t directly thank her, but probably did something nice to someone else at another part of her day. And so the story goes, and Priscila is the one to blame! : )

Luiza is very enthusiastic about the interventions. For the Ultimate Intervention Day she found a way to carry an helium gallon around Rio and spread fifteen big red balloons with nice notes:

This is for you, Even Though I don’t know you. Let’s spread kindness!

I don’t know about the people who received these balloons, but I feel happier just by looking at these photos. It’s so bright and colorful! My favorite is the one with the balloons and the statue of the Christ in the back, makes me miss home!

When they say friendship is forever, is because it’s true. Danilo and I are friends since high-school, but since we both like to travel a lot, it’s been more than four years that we’re not living in the same country. He went to Spain, I went to Italy, he went to France, I came to New York, and now he is doing his masters in Oldenburg, Germany.

But even tough we have not been so currently present in each others life, the moment I sent him an e-mail asking if he could help me, he not only accepted, but invited other friends and they together did this awesome intervention and spread these nice notes around their neighborhood. I couldn’t stop smiling! It’s so cute!

First of all, it was the best day of the year. It was sunny, warm and we could actually see the first signs of spring. Everybody seamed happy, using bright colors and carrying a big smile.

Then, we decided to go to Washington Square, which is usually a nice place, but specially today, there were tones of events happening at the same time. All of them about happiness. José Saramago has a book where everybody from a city suddenly wakes up blind, well, in New York it looked like today, everybody woke up kind!

I set my booth as usual, but the goal for today was to “Share some Love”. People who participated should write a small note to a stranger, leave it in the box, and pick up another random note that a stranger has just left to them. I wasn’t supposed to read none of the notes, because I wanted to make everybody feel comfortable, but they all looked very satisfied with their notes.

And I had a lot of great help: Chris Choi and Burcum Turkmen were there recording and marketing the event with me. And also Liz Kauff was doing a parallel intervention, which I will talk about later.

Sandra McGinnis lives in Boston and besides being a photographer/ videographer, she is also a very big enthusiastic about kindness. A couple of years ago she hiked up to the top of a mountain in New Hampshire with six gallons of ice cream and handed out scoops to fellow tourists. Is there anything better than an ice cream when you’re sweaty? I don’t think so…

But then it came the time for an Ultimate Intervention and she surprises us again! She only had one goal: kill Bostonians with kindness! And to achieve that, she decided to distribute golden eggs around town with small tokens in them and links to the website in hope that they will be found, spread joy, and point someone else in the direction of our good cause.

About:

IsA Wonderful World is a series of urban interventions created to break the routine and bring joy to people living in big cities. We deeply believe that positive attitudes can lead into a kinder society.